1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cloth material. More particularly, the invention relates to a cloth material in which a connecting member for providing an electrical interconnection is attached to a side portion of a cloth material main body, without the flexibility of the cloth material itself being lost.
2. Description of Related Art
One known way to heat a seating surface of a seat in a vehicle, particularly a passenger vehicle or the like, is to use conductive wire for a portion of the constituent yarn of woven fabric or knit fabric that forms a cover, and pass current through this conductive wire to generate heat and raise the temperature. More specifically, a cloth material that includes conductive wire that generates heat by conduction is known, for example. A portion of the conductive wire in this cloth material in the length direction thereof is provided exposed to the outside from the cloth material. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-243312 (JP 2011-243312 A) describes technology in which a first planar body and a second planar body, at least one of which is conductive, are electrically connected to an exposed portion of this conductive wire that is exposed to the outside, by being integrally heat welded to the exposed portion in a state sandwiching the exposed portion and in surface contact with it.
However, with the cloth material described in JP 2011-243312 A, at one end portion of this cloth material, the first planar body and the second planar body are completely face-bonded by the heat welding. Also, a bonded portion of the end portion of the material cloth ends up hardening by this kind of complete face-bonding, so flexibility of the cloth material itself ends up being lost. If the cloth material has poor flexibility, the ability of the cloth material to follow the shape of the seat is diminished and the quality of the external appearance may be lost. Also, when a person is seated, the cloth material may feel hard and be uncomfortable to the seated person. Therefore, there is a need for a cloth material in which a connecting member for providing an electrical interconnection is attached to a side portion of a cloth material main body, without the flexibility of the cloth material itself being lost.
Technology in which a first planar body and a second planar body of a cloth material are joined by sewing instead of by heat welding is also known. In this case, the flexibility of the cloth material itself at the cloth material end portion is sufficiently retained. However, if a thread breaks in one seam, the connection pressure ends up decreasing over the entire seam, so an electrical connection with the conductive wire may no longer be able to be sufficiently obtained. Furthermore, with sewing, the connection area of the planar bodies on the front and back is small, and in order to obtain the necessary connection area, sewing must be performed at least twice, which leads to an increase in the number of processes. Also, the conductive wire or conducting wire that gives the planar body conductivity may end up breaking due to contact between a sewing needle and the conductive wire or the conducting wire when sewing is being performed. Moreover, the sewing needle may tend to wear from this contact.